


Merry Christmas, Mr. Fontaine

by Almost_Star_Struck



Category: BioShock
Genre: Child Neglect, Christmas, Gen, Mind Control, Science Experiments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-14 23:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4584690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Almost_Star_Struck/pseuds/Almost_Star_Struck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank goes to check on his investment during the "holidays"</p><p>Not Betaed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Christmas, Mr. Fontaine

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this like 4 years ago for DA and then Y!Gal.

Christmas time in Rapture was non-existent. The reason being that religion in Rapture was non-existent.  
  
Of course most people practiced anyway, regardless of what the self-proclaimed "king" of Rapture dictated. Fontaine didn't care for the holiday ultimately, but it presented a great business opportunity. After all, who else were people going to buy Christmas decorations, party favors, food, and other festive necessities from? All that had to come from the surface and he was the only person in the city outside of that Sinclair fellow to have a functional mini-sub.  
  
Looking over his calendar, Frank lifted his feet off his desk and stood, the floorboards creaking a bit beneath his weight. It was that time of the month again...where he'd have to venture down to his least favorite part of the city and check in on his little science project brewing away near the orphanage.  
  
The kid always got so excited to see him. Of course it was only because the attention starved thing liked seeing someone other than the Kraut or Suchong. Not that he could blame anyone for wanting to get the fuck away from either of them. Scientists...something wrong with the lot of 'em. It didn't help that the kid practically lived in a jail cell with only a cot and a few mismatched toys and drawings to his name.  
  
What man wouldn't crave outsiders in a world like that?  
  
As soon as the door slid open, Fontaine's eyes met Suchong's. The Chinaman snorted and then went back to his notes, several experimental plasmids stacked around him. "Baby is in room. Tenenbaum too," he said as he wrote, shaking his pen as the ink began to run out. Fontaine rolled his eyes and puffed away on his cigar, going back to where the two scientists normally kept Jack during the days they weren't conducting experiments.  
  
When he entered the kid's room, he saw Tenenbaum was hunched over the bed, taking blood samples from Jack. She looked up, giving him a stony glare. "That time again so soon?" she asked in her thick accent. She stepped away from Jack whose brown eyes had lit up at the sight of the business man.  
  
"Mr. Fontaine!" Jack said, standing up and pulling his sleeves down. Frank nodded and looked at the kid...well he was a kid only in age. By now, Jack stood taller than him at 6'0 and was built like a line-backer. Hard to believe it had only been a year and a half since this whole project started up...all they had to do now was train the kid in firearms and then send him up to the surface.  
  
"Papa Suchong said that I'm going to be going away soon. I didn't want to leave without seeing you again, Mr. Fontaine." Jack frowned and looked to Tenenbaum as if he was afraid to say it in front of her. She sighed and shook her head.  
  
"He made you a going away present, Fontaine..." she said, crossing her arms as she stood back. "He doesn't want you to forget him." Jack nodded his head and then smiled softly.  
  
Fontaine raised an eyebrow and chuckled. It was almost cute how attached Jack was, but it was all one-sided. When the time came to get rid of him, Fontaine's biggest regret would be the amount of money he ultimately sunk into the project.  
  
"What'd you make for me, Jackie?" Frank said, lighting his cigar again and biting the end of it between his teeth. Jack grinned and went to his cot, pulling out a battered notebook. He looked at it for a moment before standing and holding it out to Fontaine. His eyes averted and he bit his lip as if he was embarrassed.  
  
Fontaine took the notebook and opened it, seeing letters scribbled out along with childish drawings in the margins of the paper.  
__  
Mr. Fontaine came today. He said he was happy with how much I've grown. At least that's what he told Papa Suchong. Papa Suchong always says I'm a disappointment...but not Mr. Fontaine!  
  
Skipping ahead, Frank's brow tightened the more he read. Did the kid write about every time he had visited over the past year? And Jesus...the kid sure knew how to sing his praises. Was he really the only 'positive' thing in this kid's life?  
  
"This is...nice, Jackie...thanks," he said, closing the book and tucking it under his arm. Jack's face split into a smile and the kid blushed a bit. "I'm glad you like it!" he said, his hands folded behind his back. Tenenbaum shook her head, her arms crossed over her chest.  
  
"All he talks about are your visits..." she said, "He wants you to come around more often. He's lonely and it's distracting him despite the modifications we've made. It makes our job difficult, Fontaine." She gestured to Jack as she spoke and Frank laughed.  
  
"And you haven't given him the order to just stop?" he asked, Tenenbaum frowned. "This is one thing that cannot be altered now. It's too late to take out his human desire for companionship. If you had been more specific in the beginning, we could have made him a cold killing machine, but you didn't ask for that. Although it would have been a lot more  _dangerous_  and a lot more expensive."  
  
Sighing, Fontaine rolled his eyes and then looked at Jack. The kid looked hurt as though Tenenbaum had exposed something he had wanted to keep hidden. He nodded to Tenenbaum and said, "Get out. I'll take care of this." He glared at the Kraut whore's back until the door closed behind her, leaving just Jack and Fontaine in the room. Immediately, Fontaine took the chair opposite the bed and puffed away on his cigar. Jack watched before slowly sitting back on the bed, his weight making the springs creak beneath him.  
  
"You miss me, kid?"  
  
Jack averted his eyes and nodded.  
  
Frank groaned and pulled his cigar out of his mouth. "Well you've got a mission to do. I belong here. I can't be there holding your hand, Jackie." He leaned over, knocking the ash off the end. Jack nodded, "I know...but...I just wanted to spend more time with you. You only come around once a month..." He trailed off and clasped his hands in his lap. Fontaine sighed. Suchong had mentioned this problem several months back when Jack happened upon a puppy. The boy had cried for hours after he had been forced to kill it. Despite the order, Jack's overall feelings behind the act of murder had not changed.  
  
The kid was just too emotional for this. Who would have thought that the son of Andrew Ryan would be so damn sentimental and emotionally charged?  
  
"I want to see you more. Especially if I'm going to be leaving soon." Jack looked at Fontaine and it was almost pathetic. So desperate for friendship, for someone to be kind and throw him a bone. Frank touched his chin, looking the other man over. He could give him an order to cut out this nonsense, but he didn't want to erase Jack's loyalty all the way. It was more useful to have him like this, where emotions easily manipulated him.  
  
"Alright then Jack...How about I give you something then to tide you over until the next time you see me?" he said, digging into his pocket. Eventually, he pulled out a box of cigarettes he had nicked from a vending machine.  
  
Jack's eyes widened as the package was held out to him. He reached forward and took the box with both hands, cupping it between them and looking at Fontaine. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" he said, pulling the box to his chest.  
  
Frank snorted. This was probably the first gift that the kid had ever received outside of whatever toys Suchong had tossed at him during his short phase as a child. "You know how to smoke, right, kid?" Jack shook his head and Fontaine nodded for him to open the box. Jack did so and pulled out a cigarette, eying it. Fontaine chuckled and plucked his lighter out from his suit jacket, flipping back the handle. Jack's eyes widened in understanding and he put the cigarette between his lips, leaning forward until the tip touched the flame.  
  
"Inhale, kid," Fontaine said, watching as Jack coughed and hacked, pulling the cigarette out almost immediately.  
  
"You'll get used to it..." he said as he watched Jack determinedly put the cigarette back into his mouth and try again with similar results. The kid forced a smile and nodded, his brown eyes watering as he practiced inhaling the smoke and then exhaling it back out.  
  
Fontaine watched him, sitting with his own cigar. It was strange. The kid looked so much like his father...all he needed were those cold blue eyes of Ryan's and it'd be a perfect illusion.  
  
Having a friendly smoke with his worst enemy. What a  _laugh_.  
  
"Mr. Fontaine?"  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
Jack coughed and pulled the cigarette away from his mouth, licking his dry lips. "How long am I going to be away? You said I'm coming back here right?" Fontaine nodded.  
  
"I don't know, kid...however long it takes." He saw Jack frown and look down at the pack of cigarettes. "I don't want to go away. I mean, I do, but not leave home entirely. The surface...it seems bad. All the Rapture Reminders say how terrible the surface is. That it's full of 'parasites'." Fontaine snorted. "Don't listen to that tripe, kid. There ain't nothing wrong with the surface. Personally, I like it down here. I got me a good business going and only Ryan is getting in the way of it all. You'll be fine."  
  
Jack nodded and he stubbed out the cigarette on the grimy floor. "Will I see you again? When I return?" he asked, looking up at Fontaine.  
  
The older man shrugged, "Sure, kid. You'll see me."  
  
They both flinched as there was a loud bang on the door behind them. "Are you done with Baby, Fontaine?" Suchong's voice called out. "I have new Lot to test." The door opened and the Chinaman stared down at the two of them, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Fontaine stood and brushed off his suit. "Yeah, I'm done. He's in good shape. Let me know when he's mastered firearms. I wanna see him go at it myself before I approve your next check, doc." Jack stood as well and stared at Fontaine, his eyes begging him to stay.  
  
Seeing Jack's face, Frank sighed and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. He hated playing 'daddy' but it was better to just go with it and placate the kid for now. It's not like he'd be dealing with it for much longer. "It'll all be fine, kid. Don't worry about it. I'll see you again in a month, ok? You'll probably be as big as a goddamn barge by then." Jack allowed himself a small smile and he nodded, blushing a bit as he looked at the broad hand cupping his shoulder.  
  
"Mr. Fontaine...thank you."  
  
"Tch...No problem, kid..."  
  
Suchong coughed loudly and Fontaine shoved the other man aside. "Better remember who is signing those checks of yours, Suchong," he said before he reentered the lab. There, Tenenbaum was sitting at her desk, her eyes pointedly fixated on her papers. Frank paid her no mind as he left the wing, ready to leave the depressing hellhole and all the poor saps that lived there.  
  
When he got back to his office, he saw he was still carrying that stupid notebook Jack had given him. Sighing, he flipped through it, looking over the little drawings that the other man had done in between the journals of his visits. Most of them were just of Fontaine, but some times it was of Suchong and Tenenbaum with little angry faces draw on them.  
  
He chuckled. "Cute, kid...real cute."  
  
Going to the last page, he saw there was a drawing of Jack sitting on what appeared to be grass. How the kid knew what grass looked like was beyond him. Jack had never left the lab and never been to Arcadia. Fontaine blinked and then nodded. He remembered now...he had shown Jack a picture of a farm when the kid had asked what the surface looked like. That's how...that's what he remembered.  
  
On the grass, a tiny Fontaine was sitting next to Jack's figure smoking. The sun was shining with a large happy grin above them.  
  
It was the type of drawing that a normal parent would post on their fridge. But this relationship with Ryan's bastard child was hardly normal.  
  
It would never be normal.  
  
He closed the book and looked to the trash can next to his desk. It was tempting to just toss it. It's not like he'd let the kid live after he did his job. There was nothing to remember about Jack Ryan outside of the fact that he was going to be a very useful tool in Rapture's revival.  
  
Fontaine sighed and put the notebook away in the bottom drawer of his desk. "I must be getting old..." he muttered to himself, pouring a shot of whiskey into his favorite crystal glass. He downed a shot, letting the warmth curl up in his stomach as he leaned back in his chair.  
  
"Well...at least I can't complain about getting nothing for Christmas this year..."


End file.
